Media Centre

King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) recently concluded the Imagine Festival and Exhibition for young authors. The festival, which is a first of its kind initiative in the Kingdom, was held from 27 – 31 October 2015 in the Bay La Sun District in KAEC

The festival enjoyed unprecedented success, hosting more than 10,000 visitors over five days, including a large number of children and young adults interested in the creative art of storytelling and novel writing. Schools and universities in surrounding areas organized student trips to visit the festival and participate in its activities and workshops. The festival also included a number of exhibits including the drawing exhibition, which displayed the work of well-known artists interested in children’s development.

“The Imagine Festival is an important part of KAEC’s mission to support the social journey towards intellectual and cultural development,” said Mr. Fahd Hamidaddin, Chief Marketing Officer at KAEC. “We aimed through the festival to create a unique, untraditional approach towards creating awareness of the importance of books, reading and creative writing.”

The exhibition of children’s books brought together a large number of international publishing houses and children’s authors and specialists. The festival’s stage was an on-going showcase for the creative talents of children and their families, where the audience engaged with young authors who competed in storytelling, singing and acting. In the interactive workshops children learned how to create stories in four steps, first by turning their imaginative ideas into written scripts, and then learning how to turn the story’s characters into illustrative sketches, before finally developing these sketches into animated versions and narrating the story’s events.

“The festival and its supporting events represent part of the social responsibility and sustainable development that we at KAEC are passionate about,” said Mr. Hamidaddin. “We look forward to implementing similar projects to help families identify their children’s talents and support them in the development of their ideas and intellectual capabilities, which will help create a new generation that is creative, innovative and active in the kingdom’s cultural and intellectual renaissance.”